Father Casimir Wyszynski

provement program: it must be understood as amatter of human cooperationwith God. Such a view conforms to Gospel principles and corroborates the Church’s experience, of which Father Casimir was perfectly aware: “Likewise, we should—with God’s help—practice virtues by following her example. Without God’s help, neither the Virgin Mary nor the saints, nor any of us can achieve anything.” 189 Taking upon ourselves the practice of imitating the Blessed Mother’s virtues is also necessary for a correct understanding of the mystery of Mary and our relationship to her. Father Casimir reminds us that Mary is blessed in the sight of God because of her “holy life and virtues.” 190 She was blessed “not only for conceiving and giving birth to Christ, but above all for hearing and keeping the word of God.” 191 Venerable Casimir supports this with refer- ences to theGospel (Lk 11:28; Jn13:17; Rom2:13) and the Fathers of the Church: Saint Augustine, Saint Bede, and Saint Bonaventure. This biblical image of Mary’s dignity finds its fulfillment in a bondwith her that is based upon the imitation of her virtues. Au- thentic veneration of Mary finds expression in a zealous effort to become “like her.” 192 Therefore, “he who has pledged himself to Mary should imitate her virtues and follow the path bywhich she followed Christ. This is how we recognize true venerators of Mary, thosewhomshe calls her own.” 193 Only the path of imitating [her virtues] indicates the essence of servingMary andmakes us “her true children.” 194 Witnesses of Father Casimir’s life confirm that he not only taught about imitating Mary, but was most eager to personally follow this path. Father Adrian Ignatowski testified to the humil- ity of the Servant of God: “When he took me as his companion to 189 Ibid. 190 Ibid, 17. 191 Ibid. 192 Ibid, 18. 193 Ibid. 194 Ibid, 24. 153 Apostle of the Immaculate Mary